Public Hearing Meetings

ALDOT will host two public hearings for the Mobile River Bridge project. Officials will be on site to answer questions about the proposed bridge and Bayway widening and solicit comments and concerns from the public. It is very important for as many proponents of a bicycle path to go to these meetings and make their voices heard.

You must sign in to speak (2 min) and all comments must be on ALDOT’s comment form. There will be a court reporter as well.

Petition

EIS Full Text

Common Questions about the Bicycle/Pedestrian path being requested

What are we requesting?: The BPAC petition simply expresses a desire and need for area residents to have a means to cross the Mobile River and requests that ALDOT & the Federal Highway Administration CONSIDER / STUDY including those facilities. The feasibility of such a project in terms of COST or SAFETY would have to be studied by those entities and if deemed infeasible then hopefully alternatives or mitigation would be considered. Dozens of bicycle and pedestrian paths exist on federal highway & interstate bridges (see list below) – safety standards are already developed and this is not a novel concept.

Why should we request it?: The federal government is building the bridge in Mobile to make it easier for people to get through Mobile quickly. The bridge will have some negative effects in Mobile. The bike/ped path is an amenity that they are required by federal law to provide us. If the federal government is going to build this massive structure in Mobile that will last for hundreds of years and be used by our descendants then we need to make sure it is done right and not miss this opportunity.

What benefits will it have?: The path has the potential to provide us the health and economic benefits outlined in the petition, as have happened with the similar Cooper River Bridge in Charleston where 66% of residents say they got more exercise because of the path. Additionally – biking infrastructure has been named the most sought after amenity for educated young people – which our economy needs – when deciding where to move.

What will it be like?: Engineering has yet to be done but it will likely be a concrete barrier SEPARATED bike-pedestrian path. Again – these exist on numerous interstate bridges and have been proven to be safe. ALDOT has said that it will have a 4% grade – equal or less that the Charleston or Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridges. The assertion that only “world class” bikers will be able to use it is easily refuted by talking to an average area biker – not to mention the fact that most people could easily walk it.

Will it delay the bridge? ALDOT has stated in MPO meeting that including the path at this point will not delay the bridge. In fact, NOT including the path will lead to a potential delay – as bridges built with federal funds are required to include consideration of bike-pedestrian facilities (see statute below). Not including them will likely lead to a lawsuit which will only mean more delays. Plus, its inclusion may help to mitigate some of the other potential concerns that would otherwise delay it.

How will it be funded? Funding for the bridge as a whole is yet to be determined, but the bridge is a federal project and will be funded primarily with federal dollars, with a smaller match by ALDOT. There is dedicated federal bike/ped funding for projects like these that can be utilized. If this path is not built then those dollars will simply go to another city. We will NOT get a tax rebate check, unfortunately. Since we are ranked #49 in the nation in bike infrastructure it will likely go to a city that already has better facilities than we do. Mobile has received relatively very little bicycle-pedestrian infrastructure dollars in the past and is already significantly behind most cities.

We, the undersigned, ask that bicycle and pedestrian facilities be included in the proposed I-10 bridge over the Mobile River.The Need
• Alabama is ranked 49th in the nation in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, indicating severe deficiencies. Within Alabama, Mobile is has fewer facilities than other cities, with only one on-road bike lane.
• Mobile is ranked 4th in the country in obesity, with a 33.7% rate. Mobile ranks in the bottom of many measures of health and quality-of-life nationally.The Opportunity
• Health and Quality-of-life: The Mobile Bay bikeway could be connected to the planned Three-Mile Creek linear park and Eastern Shore Trail – allowing people from West Mobile to Point Clear a safe avenue to exercise by biking or walking. As an example, 66% of Charleston’s Cooper River Bridge users say they are getting more exercise because of the bridge’s bikeway, and 85% of African American users say they are more active because of the bridge. Over 300,000 people per year now use the bikeway on that bridge.
• Tourism: The bikeway would be challenging enough that it would attract enthusiasts, as well as the offering the general population a spectacular view of the bay.
• Economic Development: Young entrepreneurs and professionals desire amenities such as this in the communities in which they choose to live. Also, bike paths have been shown to increase volume in small businesses along their route – which would be downtown Mobile, the Causeway, and Eastern Shore in this case – as cyclists and pedestrians are more likely to stop and patronize them.Logistics
• Bike paths on Interstate highways or bridges are NOT prohibited by law. In March 2010 the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released a policy statement that encourages state DOTs to include biking and walking accommodations on all bridge projects.
• Title 23 United States Code section §217 requires that bridges being built or replaced with federal funds include safe accommodation for bicyclists as long as it does not represent an “excessively disproportionate cost” which FHWA considers “exceeding twenty percent of the cost of the larger transportation project. ”
• There are dozens of examples of interstate or other major bridges with bicycle accommodations: the Woodrow Wilson (I‐95 at the Potomac River), the George Washington Bridge (I‐95 over the Hudson River); I‐90 floating bridge across Lake Washington in Seattle; the Golden Gate Bridge (US 101) in San Francisco; and the Cooper River Bridge (US 17) in Charleston, SC.

Last night, Congress released a $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2014, which lays out funding for agencies and their programs working to help communities build in smarter, stronger ways. The bill contains many high points for smart growth advocates, and if you were one of the many people who encouraged Congress to pass a strong appropriations bill in the past few days, thank you. Your voices were heard! At the Department of Transportation, the bill includes $600 million for another round of grants for the TIGER program—a level not seen since 2010—as well as an increase in the New Starts program that communities need to meet the demand for transit service. Transportation for America has more on the transportation aspects of the bill. Another high point is funding for community development programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The bill would increase funding for HUD’s Community Development Block Grant formula program to just over $3 billion. The Choice Neighborhoods program, which helps communities to address struggling neighborhoods with HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation, would receive $90 million. Funding for the HOME program, which helps more communities develop unique solutions to create affordable housing, would be increased to $1 billion. Unfortunately, the bill did not include funding for another round of regional planning grants. At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), funding for the Brownfields program—often the first funding a community receives to spur economic redevelopment—would stay level. The bill did not specifically call out funding for the EPA’s smart growth program. With this bill’s release, Congress takes a significant bipartisan step to returning to passing annual appropriations bills each year instead of continuing resolutions that freeze funding for programs across all agencies. The most recent funding bill expires tomorrow, and Congress is expected to pass a very short term continuing resolution through Saturday to give both the House and Senate to pass the omnibus by the end of the week.

State transportation officials across the country are facing the same challenges: Revenues are falling and budgets are shrinking but transportation demands are continuing to grow.

Innovative approaches can help transportation officials overcome both these sets of challenges, and an updated resource from Smart Growth America and the State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI) outlines how.

The second edition of The Innovative DOT, released today, provides 34 strategies transportation officials can use to position their agencies for success in a new era of constrained budgets. Originally released in 2012 and developed with input from top transportation professionals and agency staff from around the nation, the handbook documents many of the innovative approaches state leaders are using to make systems more efficient, government more effective and constituents better satisfied.

“America’s transportation system is vital for economic growth and to our everyday quality of life,” said Roger Millar, Vice President of Smart Growth America. “Faced with tight budgets, transportation agencies are taking new approaches to managing our nation’s transportation infrastructure. The resources in The Innovative DOT encourage smarter investments and a more strategic approach to help deliver the best possible performance given our current fiscal situation.”

In the two years since the handbook’s initial release, state agencies have considered a variety of new funding opportunities, bolstered planning efforts, made better use of existing infrastructure, implemented new design standards and project delivery procedures, and substantially changed the way they do business. The 2014 edition reflects these changes by adding three new strategies for reform, 20 new case studies, and numerous additional updates.

A number of common themes run through the report: Increasing collaboration between state agencies and local partners, breaking down government silos, “right-sizing” transportation projects, investing in multi-modal solutions and streamlining processes are some of the primary ways state DOTs are extracting more value from limited funds.

“Many DOTs are already using innovative reforms and initiatives to provide better travel options and operate more efficiently,” says Chris McCahill of SSTI. “Financial challenges do not have to mean a lesser quality of service. DOTs can get more for their money by evaluating their policy goals and considering a full range of strategies for meeting those goals. This handbook is designed to help them do just that.”

Bicycling in Mobile

BicycleMobile.org is a an advocacy website devoted to every aspect of bicycling in Mobile, AL. We have lists of group rides, information about bike shops and a list of key issues for advocacy and infrastructure.